


Sanders' Ten Ways To Say 'I Love You'

by TheTeamJBJBLABMB



Series: Sanders Sides One-shots [20]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders Has Panic Attacks, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders Needs a Hug, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders is a Sweetheart, Anxious Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Caring Logic | Logan Sanders, Chaotic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders Are Twins, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders In Love, Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders is Extra, Dark Sides As Family (Sanders Sides), Deceit | Janus Sanders Has Heterochromia, Gay Disaster Deceit | Janus Sanders, Insecure Logic | Logan Sanders, Insecure Morality | Patton Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders Needs a Hug, Logic | Logan Sanders is Bad at Feelings, Morality | Patton Sanders Needs a Hug, Morality | Patton Sanders is a Good Friend, Morality | Patton Sanders is a Sweetheart, Multi, Smitten Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Sympathetic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Sympathetic Deceit | Janus Sanders, Tall Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Therapist Dr. Emile Picani
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:21:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27141697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTeamJBJBLABMB/pseuds/TheTeamJBJBLABMB
Summary: The ten ways they say 'I love you', each one beautiful.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil & Creativity | Roman & Logic | Logan & Morality | Patton, Anxiety | Virgil & Creativity | Roman & Logic | Logan & Morality | Patton & Thomas Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Deceit | Janus Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Thomas Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Deceit | Janus Sanders, Dr. Emile Picani/Sleep | Remy Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders & Thomas Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders, Nico Flores/Thomas Sanders, platonic DRLAMP
Series: Sanders Sides One-shots [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1904320
Comments: 2
Kudos: 65





	Sanders' Ten Ways To Say 'I Love You'

{Straightforward. Soft and heavy, like morning before the coffee’s started brewing. Like that’s all there is to say.}  
Janus is always tired in the mornings, his heterochromatic eyes blinking sleep sand out of themselves long into the early hours of the morning. His first order of business each morning was the simple task of making coffee, and even that seemed to be a task almost impossible to complete while his eyelids tried to force themselves closed.   
On this particular morning, Janus’ half-lidded eyes met those of Remus’ from over the bar of the kitchen, and he grinned sleepily when his sensitive nose picked up the scent of coffee beans, and the noise of said beans being poured. Of course, the intrusive side was already awake.   
Janus slinked over to the counter where his lover stood, slipping gentle arms around the other’s waist. “Love you, bee vomit,” he whispered, using the affectionate term Remus had told him about from a list of rather grossly scientific pet names.   
He was rewarded with a satisfied grin, and a kiss to his forehead.  
\-   
{Through laughter, over a chorus of voices, knowing it’ll strike home anyway. It’s meant for everyone here, after all.}  
Movie nights were always eventful, lively attitudes and gentle teasing; soft smiles and mushy looks shared across the living room. Patton adored each and every night, reveled in the smiles and laughter and joy that he could cause. He was so proud of how far they had come, and while he knew it would never be perfect, he wouldn’t have it any other way.   
One of his puns went over well with the entire group- even Logan to his surprise- and as laughter permeated the room, Patton huffed through his laughter, an “I love you, kiddos!” that he called out in his feeling of euphoria, and though he couldn’t hear if the others responded, he had a feeling they had heard him anyhow.  
\-   
{Slipped under your tongue, twisted into something else. “I trust you,” maybe. Trust them to figure it out.}  
Virgil and Janus’ relationship had been strained since Virgil left the dark sides, and while they had never been completely hostile, their banter bordered on unfriendly. Virgil knew that he was being petty, knew that Janus was trying to reach out in the only way the lying side knew how, through actions more than words, and when in words, in a meaningful way. His riddled out statements that Virgil could decipher to mean forgiveness, and maybe a question.   
He wanted to answer that question, found himself desperate for Janus to understand, but he wasn’t ready to say anything monumental. He just couldn’t open himself up like that.  
So, he said it in the only way Janus had known how to reach, in the only way the deceitful side could understand.   
“I trust you,” he whispered one morning as they sat together on the couch.   
Janus only hummed, but the wetness in his eyes and his shy smile was answer enough.  
\-   
{Instead of “thank you” or “see you soon” or “drive safe.” Because no matter what you say it’ll mean the same thing.}  
There were a variety of things Thomas could do to express what he wanted to, but for some reason, he was never sure what to say around Logan. The logical side had so many needs, needs they had ignored for so long, and now Thomas really didn’t know what to do to help. A thank you for the debate, while it made Logan smile a little, didn’t feel right, and any little promise he made of seeing the logical side later felt more like saying goodbye to a co-worker than someone so intimately him they could hardly be separated.   
So when the debate was over, Thomas turned to the logical side, his gaze causing the other to freeze, to tilt his bespectacled head in confusion. “I love you, Logan,” he stated honestly, and when Logan’s face lit up in a wide grin, Thomas knew he had finally found the right parting.  
\-   
{Casually, as if you don’t mean it. Trying like hell not to mean it.}  
Remy felt Thomas finally slip into a dream at eleven in the evening, his own eyes drooping a little; evidence for how long he had waited for the human to drop off. He took a sip of his coffee, wandered out of the common room, moved to enter his room, and found that another’s door was already open, Dr. Emile Picani settled in a nest of pillows as he read yet another book on psychology.  
He flopped down on the pink sheets, head nestled in one of the pillows next to his love’s lap.   
“Love you,” he said casually, keeping up the same persona he normally did.   
“I love you too, my exhausted little Starlight,” Emile giggled, a hand stroking through his hair.   
Maybe...maybe he could afford to let his guard down this time.   
-  
{Wrapped up in a question. How’s your day been, have you eaten, you know you can tell me anything, right? You know you can tell them anything. Right?}  
Virgil slipped through the crack of the door, wincing as it creaked a little under his leaning weight. The blue-ish hue of the room hurt his eyes, and he desperately focused on the side typing away frantically on one of many keyboards, this particular one belonging to the middle computer, where Thomas’ schedule resided.   
“Logan?” Virgil muttered, getting a low hum, one that proved the logical side wasn’t really listening.  
“Logan?”   
A sigh. “Yes, Virgil?”   
“You know we love you, and you can tell us anything, right? You can tell me anything. I just...please let us in,” Virgil’s tone was enough for Logan to turn around, revealing eyes that did not need Virgil’s eyeshadow to be bagged and worn.  
“Yes, Virgil. I know.”  
-  
{Under your breath while the whole house sleeps, just before you have to leave for the day. More for yourself than for them.}  
Nico knew he needed to get to work, and that Thomas wouldn’t be up for another few hours, so he reluctantly pulled himself off of the floor where he’d fallen asleep next to the other man, a smile overtaking his face as he brushed a strand of hair from the other’s mouth, chuckling as Thomas stirred only a little before settling right back into sleep.   
He stood, gathering his belongings that had been taken from his bag, packing up as he walked towards the front door, glancing back every-so-often to assure himself that Thomas was still sleeping. That man needed a lot more sleep and self-care than he realized.   
“God, I love you already, Thomas…” he laughed as he recalled their first meeting, the social anxiety and the nervous smiles, the skittish attitude that had been ignored in favor of approaching him of all people…  
Yes, he could love this man. He did love this man.  
-  
{With a hand on their shoulder, a song on your lips, or a carton of their favorite ice cream in the freezer.}  
Roman skipped into the kitchen in the mornings, always up and raring to go early. Beauty sleep was saved for later, Roman needed to be up and at ‘em as early as he could be!  
Which meant he also ran into another early riser, who seemed to be the first awake on this particular day, the anxious side reaching into the freezer for ice cream, which Roman chuckled at. “Hello, my emo nightmare! I see you’re going to sugarfy first thing in the morning~? He asked, trilling a little as if he were going to break out into song.   
Virgil shrugged, though the edges of his lips pulled upward. “Is that even a word, Princey?”   
Roman laughed dramatically. “Are you kidding me? Oh, Virgil, I love you, but we have to work on your vocab! Who doesn’t know the word ‘sugarfy’~?”   
“People with common sense,” Virgil replied, chuckling at the prince’s scandalized gasp.  
-  
{Over a nervous smile, biting back the just-this-side-of-desperate hope they’ll say it back.}  
Patton knew that Logan wasn’t the most verbal person. His love was shown through smaller, subtler actions, like small touches and supportive words. He’d sit with him on bad days, he’d smile at him from across a room, he’d call him over for his opinion on different topics, and Patton knew that things like that should make him content.   
But he had yet to hear Logan say he loved him.  
There was no way he was going to pressure Logan, never. And he knew, deep down, that one did not have to express love through those three words in order to prove to someone that they loved them, but regardless, he found himself wishing that those words would be directed at him. It didn’t even have to be in a romantic sense if he didn’t want them to be. Just-  
“I love you, Lo.”  
Oh. Oh no…  
“I love you too, Pat,” Logan’s eyes were so soft, so sincere, and oh, Patton was going to cry. It was more than he could have asked for.   
-  
{With a soft sigh. Past exhaustion and frustration and despair, like it’s the only good thing left. Sometimes it is.}  
Thomas knew that Virgil was finally calming down. That his normal anxieties during the night were beginning to settle, and the anxious side was coming down from his geared-up panic attack. He also knew that Virgil was insecure about his role even in the middle of incidents such as this, his worry over burdening Thomas sometimes even more present than his worry over anything else.   
As they both laid on Thomas’ bed, side-by-side, he reached over and took Virgil’s hand, squeezing it reassuringly. “I still love you, Virgil. I won’t stop loving you no matter how much panic we go through. We’ll get through it together, okay?”   
He paused, patient in this. He knew this particular side wasn’t going to be so forthcoming with things like this. And he was willing to wait for as long as it took until Virgil could confirm his words, until he could safely say, “Okay,” without fear.   
He would wait for as long as he needed to.   
He didn’t need to hear it to know that Virgil understood.

**Author's Note:**

> I got this from a prompt on Tumblr (you can find it on the Request Piece!)  
> I'm feeling really proud of this, and I hope you enjoyed!!


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